Let me add some:

waliy which in arabic means 'sm1 close to God' is used in yoruba language as woli in the white garment churches.

Burj - buruji; when something is big

Orikinla: Odudwa was an Arabian Prince who met Orunmila and became naturalized as a Yorùbá and introduced these Arabic variations into the Yorùbá language.

.

I heard that story too

Orikinla: Odudwa was an Arabian Prince who met Orunmila and became naturalized as a Yorùbá and introduced these Arabic variations into the Yorùbá language.

Oduduwa wasn't no arab prince - just because he allegedly "came from the east" doesn't mean he was an arab... Are you sure there were even arabs on this planet at that point in history??

The Arbiter: The Arabic roots of many contemporary Yoruba words has been investigated. Titled “On Arabic Loans in Yoruba,” it was written by Professor Sergio Baldi, a well-regarded Italian linguist, who presented it at the Annual Conference on African Linguistics in California, USA, in March 1995.

Below are excerpts from the article as presented by Farooq A. Kperogi. To download a copy or read the complete article CLICK HERE.

1. Abere. This Yoruba word for “needle” traces its etymology to the Arabic “ai-bra,” which also means needle.

2. Adura. This is the Yoruba word for prayers. In fact, there is a popular syncretic Christian sect in Yorubaland that goes by the name “aladura,” meaning “people who pray” or “praying people.” Many other northern and central Nigerian languages have some version of this word to denote prayers. It is derived from the Arabic “du’a,” which also means prayers.

3. Alubosa. This Yoruba word for “onion” was borrowed from the Hausa “albasa,” which in turn borrowed it from the Arabic “al-basal.”

4. Alufa/Alfa. This is a widely used word for a Muslim scholar (and occasionally any Muslim) not just in Yorubaland but in Nupeland, Borgu, Igalaland, Ebiraland, etc. It is now increasingly used by Yoruba Muslim women as a term of respect for their husbands.

Surprisingly, the word is absent in the Hausa language. It came as no surprise therefore when Professor Baldi suggested that the word came to the Yoruba language—and many other central Nigerian languages—through the Songhai. It is derived from the Arabic “khalifah,” which means a “successor” or a “representative” (of the prophet of Islam). It was first corrupted to “Alfa” by the Songhai who later exported their version of the word to western and central Nigeria—and to other parts of West Africa. Many Songhai were itinerant Islamic preachers who traveled all over West Africa.

5. Atele/itele. It means “following” in Yoruba, and it is derived from “at-talin,” which also means “following” in Arabic.

6. Amodi. It means “disease” in Yoruba and is derived from “al-marad,” the Arabic word for disease.

7. “Amo.” It is a conjunction in Yoruba, which performs the same function that the word “but” performs in English; it introduces contrast. It is rendered as “amma” in Hausa, which is the way it is rendered in its original Arabic form.

8. Anfani. This Yoruba word for “utility” or “importance” also occurs in Hausa, Batonu, and many northern and central Nigerian languages. It is derived from the Arabic “naf,” which means “advantage, profit.”

9. Ara/ apaara. The word means "thunder" in Yoruba, and is derived from the Arabic “ar-ra’d.”

10. Asiri. It means “secret” in Yoruba, Hausa, and in many other Nigerian languages. It is derived from the Arabic “as-sirr” where it also means “secret.”

11. Barika. This is the Yoruba word for “congratulations.” It is rendered as “barka” in Hausa. The word’s original Arabic form is “al-baraka,” which means “greetings.”

12. Borokinni. It means a “gentleman, respected man in a secure financial position.” The word is also found in many Borgu languages, such as Batonu and Bokobaru, where “boro” means a “friend.” It is derived from the Arabic “rukn,” which means “support, corner, basic element.”

13. Faari. It means “showing off” or “boastfulness” or “ostentatious display” in Yoruba. It has the same meaning in many Borgu languages. It is derived from the Arabic “fakhr,” which means “glory, pride, honor.” (Note that “kh” is a guttural sound in Arabic, which is close to a hard “h” in English. That sound was dropped by Nigerian languages).

14. Fitila. It means any kind of lamp. Its roots are located in the Arabic word for lamp, which is “fatil.”

15. Ijamba. Professor Baldi defines this word as “bodily harm,” but the meaning of the word I’m familiar with is one that associates it with cunning, cheating, deceit. It is derived from the Arabic “danb,” or “danba,” which means “sin, crime.” (Note that Arabic frequently dispenses with end vowels (that is, a, e, i, o, and u) in words, whereas many Nigerian languages almost always end words with a vowel—and add them to words they borrow from other languages if such words lack an end vowel).

16. Imale. This is the Yoruba word for “Muslim.” I read previous interpretations of this word from Yoruba scholars who say it is Yoruba for “that which is difficult” to underscore the difficulty of Islamic practices like praying five times a day, fasting for 30 days during Ramadan, etc. Other Yoruba scholars said the word initially denoted “people from Mali” since the Songhai people who Islamized Yoruba land in the 15th century were from Mali.

But Baldi argues that “imale” is the corruption of the Arabic “Mu’alim,” which means a teacher. In the Hausa language, the word is rendered as Maalam. It’s interesting that “Mallam” has become the synonym for Hausa (or northern) Muslim in southern Nigeria.

17. Iwaju. It’s the Yoruba word for “front part.” I didn’t imagine that this word had an Arabic origin until I read Baldi’s article. It is derived from the Arabic “al-wajh,” which means “front” or “face.”

18. Iwaasu. It is the Yoruba term for “preaching” or “sermon.” It is used by both Christians and Muslims in Yorubaland, and is derived from the Arabic “waz,” which means “admonition” or “sermon.” (The Yoruba language has no “z” sound, so it substitutes “z” with “s” when it borrows words from other languages with “z” sounds).

19. Suuru. It means “patience” not only in Yoruba but in many languages in central and northern Nigeria. It is derived from the Arabic “sabr,” which also means “patience.”

20. Talaka. It means the poor. It came to Yoruba by way of Hausa, which borrowed it from the Tuareg (where it is rendered as "taleqque" and where it means “a poor woman”). It’s also used in Mandingo, Songhai languages, Kanuri, Teda, and many West African languages. Baldi says this word has no Arabic origins. On the surface, this may be true. After all, the Arabic word for a poor person is “fakir” (plural: “fuqura”).

However, “talaq,” as most Muslims know, is the Arabic word for divorce. (The chapter of the Qur'an that deals with the subject of divorce is called Suratul Talaq). Talaq is derived from the verb “talaqa,” which means to “disown,” to “repudiate.” In times past (and it’s still the case today in many Muslim societies) if a woman was divorced, she was invariably thrown into poverty. Thus, Tuaregs used the term “taleqque” to denote a “poor woman.” But Hausa, Kanuri, Yoruba, Mandingo, and other West African languages expanded the original Tuareg meaning of the word to include every poor person. This is my theory.

21. Tobi. This Yoruba word for “women’s knickers” is derived from the Arabic “taub,” which means “garment,” “dress,” “cloth.” Another tonal variation of this word leads to a different Yoruba word, which means “big.”

22. Wahala. Well, this isn’t just a Yoruba word by way of Hausa; it’s made its way into most Nigerian languages—and into West African Pidgin English. It means “trouble,” and it’s derived from the Arabic “wahla,” which means “fright,” “terror.”

Well done bro, great job

shymexx:

Oduduwa wasn't no arab prince - just because he allegedly "came from the east" doesn't mean he was an arab... Are you sure there were even arabs on this planet at that point in history??

Prove your point brother, what is the particular year of that point in history that you are talking about. The most certain thing is that the Arabs have been in existence in the Arabian pennisula for over one-thousand four-hundred years(i.e. the period in which Allah's final messenger lived). so, give us a date on the time through which Oduduwa lived.

but some of the words are hard for me to believe they've been derived may be they underwent a little transcription

No matter the angle we all look at it, we all may not be far from the truth. According to the bible, we all speak the same language until the event during the building of the tower of Babel, when GOD divided the language into so many languages. So, Yoruba follow Yoruba go. Hebrew follow Hebrew go etc etc. So, all languages originates from the same source.

BUT THE PORULAR AND WIDELY USED WORD IS: WALAHI TALAHI - BE IT YORUBA, IGBO OR HAUSA.

If we see any similarity between Yoruba and Arabic language, we shouldnt suprise. We should find out where Yorubas originated from.

Sike: BUT THE PORULAR AND WIDELY USED WORD IS: WALAHI TALAHI - BE IT YORUBA, IGBO OR HAUSA.

that's an Arabic word now.

You have all done wonderfully well by your insightful posts/comments. You made me think about the Biblical account of the world that once spoke the same language in BABYLON. They wanted to reach unto God physically and agreed to build a tower. When HE( God) saw what they will achieve this singular language and agreement, HE diversified their tongues and they could no longer understand themselves and that ended the project. People became scattered because they could not communicate effectively. A common example of such misunderstanding is between the Yorubas and the Binis (EDO) :1, domo in benin means,respectful greeting to elder where as," have sex with a child" is the meaning in yoruba. 2, Obota means, good evening in Benin but, it means "Vagina sells" to a yoruba folk. 3, Oko yo o means, well done in Benin but, "the Pennis is out" in yoruba language. A yoruba folk listening to the Binis exchanging greetings and pleasantries will term them to be corrupt with their words. whereas the Binis are upright in their communication. What a confusion! Peace.

Muh'd Bashir:

Prove your point brother, what is the particular year of that point in history that you are talking about. The most certain thing is that the Arabs have been in existence in the Arabian pennisula for over one-thousand four-hundred years(i.e. the period in which Allah's final messenger lived). so, give us a date on the time through which Oduduwa lived.

Can you prove that the "messenger"(Muhammed SAW) was arab and not black African

Ok, let's say Arabs existed 1,400 yrs ago - which is like about 500AD, right??

Read this:

Among the most ancient of these finds is the Iwo-Ileru relic, which carbon dating has given a spectacular age of between 9000BC- 12000BC. Iwo-Eleru is very close to Akure in the east of Yoruba land.

In western part of Yoruba land, some ancient finds have also been discovered around the Mejiro cave at old Oyo. Hear Shaw: - “At Old Oyo, a Neolithic industry was recovered which has no associated pottery or ground stone axis, but the sample was small and it is undated” (Shaw 1977: 53 ) - - - The relics at the Mejiro are dated some 4000BC.

It is important to note here that the various Yoruboid dialects: Ijebu, Egba, Ekiti, Ilaje and Awori etc., started separating from one another some 2,000 years ago.

Archaeologists, according to M. Omoleya, inform us that the Nigerian region was inhabited more than forty thousand years ago, or as far back as 65,000BC. During this period, the Nok culture occupied the region. The Nok culture was visited by the “Yoruba people”, between 2000BC and 500BC. This group of people was led, according to Yoruba historical accounts by king Oduduwa, who settled peacefully in the already established Ile-Ife, the sacred city of the indigenous Nok people. This time period is known as the Bronze Age, a time of high civilization of both of these groups.
http://nbmarena.org/Library/Oduduwa.html

According to text above, King Oduduwa settled in ile-ife between 2000BC to 500BC(this assertion was made by ARCHAELOGISTS) - which means he settled there more than a thousand years before the first arab was born!!!

I promised on another thread where PAGAN 9JA and ghostofsparta attacked me to read some books in my possession again and relay the origin of the Yorubas as historians have studied it.

Unfortunately, I have not had plenteous time to read and summarize the literary works.

I believe strongly that the issue in the thread at hand bothers mainly on the eastern origin of the Yorubas. The Mecca claim by some section of historians has been subject to so much contention that it become easy to say the Yorubas originated from the East. (some people would ask for my head here anyway *shrugs*)

I believe Negro_ntns has some knowledge we can use here.

This is from Prof. S.O Biobaku (Former VC Unilag)'s books: "A window on Nigeria" and "The origin of the Yoruba".

Samuel Johnson, the historian of the Yoruba, based his "surmises" upon traditional stories of their origin. His conclusions are that the Yoruba sprang from Upper Egypt in Nubia; that they were the subjects of the Egyptian conqueror, Nimrod, who was of Phoenician origin and that they followed him in his wars of conquest as far as Arabia, where they settled for a time. The Yoruba were driven from Arabia because they clung to their own form of worship when people around them were going over to Islam.

Orikinla: Odudwa was an Arabian Prince who met Orunmila and became naturalized as a Yorùbá and introduced these Arabic variations into the Yorùbá language.

Tales by moonlight that cannot stand in the face of very simple examination.

Orikinla: Odudwa was an Arabian Prince who met Orunmila and became naturalized as a Yorùbá and introduced these Arabic variations into the Yorùbá language.

Tale by moolight.

That is language for you. There are some words in Igbo language that are similar/ same with some Yoruba words eg. Yoruba (Okuta-stone); Igbo ( Okute-stone), Yoruba (imu-nose); Igbo (imi-nose),Yoruba (elubo-cassava powder); igbo (alubo-cassava powder). There are others like that.

Languages are like that.

saved: You have all done wonderfully well by your insightful posts/comments. You made me think about the Biblical account of the world that once spoke the same language in BABYLON. They wanted to reach unto God physically and agreed to build a tower. When HE( God) saw what they will achieve this singular language and agreement, HE diversified their tongues and they could no longer understand themselves and that ended the project. People became scattered because they could not communicate effectively. A common example of such misunderstanding is between the Yorubas and the Binis (EDO) :1, domo in benin means,respectful greeting to elder where as," have sex with a child" is the meaning in yoruba. 2, Obota means, good evening in Benin but, it means "Vagina sells" to a yoruba folk. 3, Oko yo o means, well done in Benin but, "the Pennis is out" in yoruba language. A yoruba folk listening to the Binis exchanging greetings and pleasantries will term them to be corrupt with their words. whereas the Binis are upright in their communication. What a confusion! Peace.

Thank you bro, but the bottom line that i am trying to entrench is the fact that languages are borrowed amongst one another so, we should not dispute
all these once we cannot affilliate with any other language. Yoruba as a race started at a point so, if we are not able to justify that the race(Youba) has been existing before the Arabs were genuinely known(1400years ago) & the alleged Arab prince Oduduwa issue proved to be true then it means that's how it all came in.

saved: You have all done wonderfully well by your insightful posts/comments. You made me think about the Biblical account of the world that once spoke the same language in BABYLON. They wanted to reach unto God physically and agreed to build a tower. When HE( God) saw what they will achieve this singular language and agreement, HE diversified their tongues and they could no longer understand themselves and that ended the project. People became scattered because they could not communicate effectively. A common example of such misunderstanding is between the Yorubas and the Binis (EDO) :1, domo in benin means,respectful greeting to elder where as," have sex with a child" is the meaning in yoruba. 2, Obota means, good evening in Benin but, it means "Vagina sells" to a yoruba folk. 3, Oko yo o means, well done in Benin but, "the Pennis is out" in yoruba language. A yoruba folk listening to the Binis exchanging greetings and pleasantries will term them to be corrupt with their words. whereas the Binis are upright in their communication. What a confusion! Peace.

Kia Kia Kia kia.....*me laughing in Hebrew*

Ona nor go kii pesin for this Naira kingdom.., sorry K.u.n.t-rey.., I mean nation...

kabiyesiii: Arabic, like most languages, borrowed tons of words from Ancient Egyptian/Nubian language. In addition, through Jihad, the Arabs absorbed many loaned words from the Berbers, Tuaregs, Persians, Turks, Chinese and Indians. We tend to give Arabic too much credits on loaned words. Are we intellectually lazy?

Adura in Yoruba is not an Arabic word, but rather, it is a contraction of Ado Iwa. It is in odu ifa and it means the "divine energy/force of existence". It means the same thing in Ancient Egyptian language, which by the way, is very close to many West African languages. Ara is associated with Jakuta (Ṣango). Are you telling me that Yoruba never had a name for thunder until the encounter with Arabic[b][/b]? I no fit laugh o.

If you're not sure of the origin of a so called "loaned word", go to the ancient link, the KEMET/Nubian language group.

Thus, which language is much older between the Ancient Egyptian and "new kid on the block" Arabic? I rest my case.

Good observation!

It's quite funny to me how folks swallowed everything the man said about a language (Yoruba) that he may not even be able to speak fluently. It's undoubtable that a number of words in Yoruba language were borrowed from Arabic but that does not make every yoruba word that bears some semblance to arabic a loaned word. The word for "yawn" in Yoruba is "yan" and the pronunciations are quite similar. Shall we say it was borrowed from English language?

Yorubas attach a lot of belief to the phenomena of thunder and lightning and these religious beliefs have been long in existence before the spread of Islam in yoruba land. It's not so reasonable to think that the word for something of such significant spiritual and cultural importance would only be formed after the spread of Islam or borrowed from a religion (or its adherents) that neither share nor agree with the beliefs.

But Baldi argues that “imale” is the corruption of the Arabic “Mu’alim,” which means a teacher. In the Hausa language, the word is rendered as Maalam. It’s interesting that “Mallam” has become the synonym for Hausa (or northern) Muslim in southern Nigeria.

Sounds wrong. "Mallam" has an equivalent in Yoruba. It is "Mala" with the first a pronounced like "aw". In my opinion, if the proponent of these postulations had asked any adult yoruba, he/she would have explained that "imo ti o le" would easily be shortened in spoken form to "imale". And for clarification purposes, the second vowel in the word "imale" is pronounced like "aw" with a silent "w".

I wished the person who came up with this ideas had consulted teachers of Yoruba language before making such surmises.

Ara, asiri, I believe those words translate as thunder and gossip in ibo I stand to be corrected tho

shymexx:

Can you prove that the "messenger"(Muhammed SAW) was arab and not black African

Ok, let's say Arabs existed 1,400 yrs ago - which is like about 500AD, right??

Read this:



According to text above, King Oduduwa settled in ile-ife between 2000BC to 500BC(this assertion was made by ARCHAELOGISTS) - which means he settled there more than a thousand years before the first arab was born!!!

you are getting it all wrong bro, Muhammed(SAW) was not the first Arab. i was just citing the date the current islamic calender was started. The Arabs have been existing long,long before the final messenger was born. If you look at his ancestral chain you would know what am talking about.

saved: You have all done wonderfully well by your insightful posts/comments. You made me think about the Biblical account of the world that once spoke the same language in BABYLON. They wanted to reach unto God physically and agreed to build a tower. When HE( God) saw what they will achieve this singular language and agreement, HE diversified their tongues and they could no longer understand themselves and that ended the project. People became scattered because they could not communicate effectively. A common example of such misunderstanding is between the Yorubas and the Binis (EDO) :1, domo in benin means,respectful greeting to elder where as," have sex with a child" is the meaning in yoruba. 2, Obota means, good evening in Benin but, it means "Vagina sells" to a yoruba folk. 3, Oko yo o means, well done in Benin but, "the Pennis is out" in yoruba language. A yoruba folk listening to the Binis exchanging greetings and pleasantries will term them to be corrupt with their words. whereas the Binis are upright in their communication. What a confusion! Peace.

Thanks a lot. The Bible account of languages is more plausible.
Iranian Persians say BIA for come, just as in Igbo language. Some Ethiopians call fish ASA, which every Igbo call a particularly delicious fish.
All this do connote anything other than the great dispersal at Babel.

Muh'd Bashir:


you are getting it all wrong bro, Muhammed(SAW) was not the first Arab. i was just citing the date the current islamic calender was started. The Arabs have been existing long,long before the final messenger was born. If you look at his ancestral chain you would know what am talking about.

I doubt an ethnicity called "Arab" existed before then... Being Arab is more or less a way of life and location, and that started less than 2,000 years ago - before then, there was nothing called Arab... And I can also assert that at the point in history, most of the people in that region were not even the Arabs of today - a lot of migrations and interracial mixing have happened after that...

Interesting thread.I can't wait to learn more.

I'm very sure that 500years from now, the South Americans will start claiming vodun, condombe, santeria etc. as their own without giving props to the Yoruba culture and the orishas that are of Yoruba origin...

This sums up the story of African people, we're the gift that keeps on giving the world without getting any props for it... That's the same way they're claiming the Moors that conquered and colonised southern Europe for more than 800yrs were a bedouin/berber tribe - when they were clearly blacks... Heck, they also named a country that has nothing to do with the original moors, Morocco...

I'm sure if Mansa Musa never had a picture or he didn't live in somewhere like Mali, they would have called him an Arab as well...

Give the black man props, we didn't borrow nothing from Arabs, damn it!!

The Arbiter:
16. Imale. This is the Yoruba word for “Muslim.” I read previous interpretations of this word from Yoruba scholars who say it is Yoruba for “that which is difficult” to underscore the difficulty of Islamic practices like praying five times a day, fasting for 30 days during Ramadan, etc. Other Yoruba scholars said the word initially denoted “people from Mali” since the Songhai people who Islamized Yoruba land in the 15th century were from Mali.

But Baldi argues that “imale” is the corruption of the Arabic “Mu’alim,” which means a teacher. In the Hausa language, the word is rendered as Maalam. It’s interesting that “Mallam” has become the synonym for Hausa (or northern) Muslim in southern Nigeria.

First it is shameful that an Italian will be doing linguistic research on yoruba when we have super wealthy folks like Glo mogul Mike Adenuga who could sponsor such projects and have his name mentioned in any media info related to the study results. Rather than do owambe unlimited while we continue to be the dregs of the world.
After we go dey shout I'm black and proud. Very empty baseless phrase.

Did anyone notice that late Olusola Saraki's great-grandfather was said to have come from Mali Further proof that the Nigerian lords & masters (fulanis) are the immigrants who arrived last in this geographical entity called Nigeria. I beleive I have read somewhere that Buhari's folks crossed over from Niger Republic less than 200 years ago.

Orikinla: Odudwa was an Arabian Prince who met Orunmila and became naturalized as a Yorùbá and introduced these Arabic variations into the Yorùbá language.

Oduduwa is more related to Okoduwa.

i dnt believe in this cuz languages do look alike and this likeness dosen't make a language originate from a languge cuz at first man do speak one languge but later God disorganize the language, and now are are you people trying to tell me that yoruba people are not making use o this words before they meet the arab people.(every body just using ideology on origination of languge inluding the man called Baldi) this is a mystery, beyond evrey one.

seunajia: I promised on another thread where PAGAN 9JA and ghostofsparta attacked me to read some books in my possession again and relay the origin of the Yorubas as historians have studied it.

Unfortunately, I have not had plenteous time to read and summarize the literary works.

I believe strongly that the issue in the thread at hand bothers mainly on the eastern origin of the Yorubas. The Mecca claim by some section of historians has been subject to so much contention that it become easy to say the Yorubas originated from the East. (some people would ask for my head here anyway *shrugs*)

I believe Negro_ntns has some knowledge we can use here.

This is from Prof. S.O Biobaku (Former VC Unilag)'s books: "A window on Nigeria" and "The origin of the Yoruba".

I've got a little problem with Prof. Biobaku's excerpt from Samuel Johnson. Firstly, who was Nimrod (also Lamurudu)? Nimrod as I know, lived at least over three thousand years (3000 BC) before the advent of Islam. So, how is it possible that Yorubas retained their language (and religion) for three thousand years? That theory is very flawed and inconsistent. The most likely theory of Yoruba origin timeline is as thus:

1. The NOK Culture era preceded the pre-500 BC times in Yoruba land. This era was also the era of the Nilotes, Khoisans and Ethiopians, the very first groups identified as the forerunners of the African race. The early Yoruba groups must have been migrants from Sudan. This group must have been an homogeneous group consisting of Yorubas, Igbos, Igala and perhaps, Edo. I suspect they are Nilotes who once lived along the great White Nile in modern day South Sudan. I suspect the group splintered at some time in this history timeline.

2. The post-500 BC (over 2500 yrs ago) era witnessed as influx of Assyrians, Canaanites and some Hebrews into West Africa. Many of these people were running away from the rampaging army of the Babylonians. Please, check the Hausa history (also Ashur), Kanemi (or Borno history) and Oyo Empire history. This subject has been thoroughly dissected by the German Historian on his research on the Yoruba, Hausa and Kanemi empires. As a matter of fact, many Hausa native names have Assyrian roots. Infact, I just discovered that Aminu was actually an ancient Assyrian King over 2500 yrs ago, check this:

" Aminu was the son of Ilu-kabkabu, Ila-kabkabi of Yazkur-el, Jazkur-ilu of Yakmeni, Jakmeni of Yakmesi, Jakmesi of Ilu-Mer, Ilu-Mer of Hayani, Hajanu of Samani,Samanu of Hale, Hale of Apiašal, Apiašal of Ušpia" - http://www.livius.org/k/kinglist/assyrian.html

if you check that website, you'll see a lot of names that resemble modern Hausa names. But they are all ancient Assyrian names.


3. Thirdly, the post-1 AD era had some more influx of people. This is when I suspect Oduduwa arrived Yorubaland. Most research points to the fact that Oduduwa met a civilisation on ground when he arrived Yorubaland.

****The above is my personal research and understanding. There are many consistent researchers on this subject on Nairaland. I would like Negrontns, amor4ce and Tony Spike to examine my postulation. I don't mind inputs from other contributors. Please, no abuses please. Thanks

shymexx:

Oduduwa wasn't no arab prince - just because he allegedly "came from the east" doesn't mean he was an arab... Are you sure there were even arabs on this planet at that point in history??

YES THERE WERE! THE ARAB BEDU TRIBALS WERE STILL IN YEMEN AROUND THAT TIME, CULTIVIATING AROUND THE MAÁRIB DAM! THEY HAD NOT YET SPREAD TO THE GULF. THE NABATEAN CIVILIZATION WAS ALSO ONGOING AROUND THE NAJD REGION. THEN THERE WAS THE MESOPOTAMIAN CIVILIZATION FURTHER NORTH TOWARDS IRAQ.

[img]http://files.blogter.hu/user_files/84691/buyuk/m%C3%A1rib/Marib_dam.jpg[/img]

That was what Samuel Johnson arrived at. There are other postulations:

P. Amanry Talbot in his well known work, The Peoples of Southern Nigeria, advanced the theory that the Yoruba probably introduced Bronze into modern Nigeria. They came in from the north-east and he gave the period as the beginning of the second millenium BCE.

According to Talbot, the Yoruba were followed by the Bariba, the Bussawa, Tapa (Nupe) and the Jukun among others. He said that their migration arose from events in Egypt such as the Nubian wars of about 1870 B.C or the conquest later of Egypt by the Hykos with their broad scimitars and Chariots drawn by horses.

Leo Froebinius, a German Explorer, writing in his Voice of Africa in 1913 propounded a still more interesting theory. He had visited the Yoruba country and had discovered the now famous heads and terra cottas at Ile-Ife. Obviously elated by his findings Froebinius declared that in YorubaLand he had re-discovered the lost Atlantis. The Yoruba terra cotta, aspects of Yoruba architecture and religion were so patently Etruscan that mere coincidence must be ruled out; the Yoruba civilization was Estruscan.

Denham Clapperton in his book "Narratives of Travels and Discoveries in Northern and Central Africa" (1822) translated and extracted from Sultan Bello of Sokoto caliphate's works on the History of the Sudan this account: "The inhabitants of this province, originated from the reminants of the children of Canaan who were of the tribe of Nimrod. The cause of their establishment in West Africa was, as it is stated, in consequence of their being driven by Ya-rooba, son of Khatan out of Arabia, in the western coast between Egypt and Abyssinia. From the spot they advanced into the interior of Africa where they fixed their residence. On their way they left in every place they stopped at, a tribe of their own people. Thus it is supposed that all the tribes of Sudan who inhabit the mountains are originated from them"

Clapperton wrote; Here is an important piece of traditional evidence. The link with modern Sudan indicates a fruitful field for intensive research; for anyone who has seen people in the southern parts of Sudan witb their facial marks and general physical features cannot fail to notice the similarities with the Yoruba.

It is known that the Arab tribe named Khananites of Southern Arabia had maintained trade relations with the Sudan in the pre-Islamic period; they had also formed a definite link between the Arabs and the Negro population of Abyssinia and Periodically invaded the Nile Valley. The Influx of the Arab tribes continued and with the rise of Islam they became conquerors of the Sudan; those who resisted the new faith were forced to flea. It is clear that Sultan Bello's account refers to the period when after the conquest of Syria, the Khalif El Aziz Abu Mansur (975-996 A.D.) Moved the Bani Solaym and bani Hilal to upper Egypt and settled them there.


I found this Wikipedia link which gives support to the Sultan Bello's claims en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manasir

If the theory of migration is accepted, some important problems would arise. The first is one of the aborigines whom the Yoruba might have met, if any, on their arrival. Undoubtedly, one needs archaeological evidence to settle this problem. From the evidence available at present, the Yoruba would appear to have been the last Sudanic people to have migrated into their present areas. They were also the most virile. The Moremi legend presupposed that they at some stage encountered some opposition from the Igbo people and the detailed research work of Ishola Olomola on The Eastern Yoruba Country before Oduduwa is the right direction of the kind of intensive research that could shed more light on this subject.